When I tell people I write romance novels, I get myriad responses. By far, the ones I find most offensive are those people who ask, Do you ever want to write real books? Yeah. I do want to write real books. That’s why I write romance novels.
Romance is for the women of the world who don’t get to hear their stories told nearly enough. It’s for all people whose stories are silenced, it’s a beacon of hope and optimism when things seem really, really bad.
While I came of age in the era of Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson romances, there is no doubt in my mind that we are living in the renaissance of romcoms.
Romance novels create a utopian relationship, critics often squawk. There aren’t any real men like this. Every reader or writer of the genre has heard the refrain in some way, shape or form and there’s a reason for that. It’s called sexism.
This post contains SPOILERS for Marvel’s END GAME and other films in the MCU. Not big ones, but ya know. The ensemble Avengers film, The Avengers, aired about seven years ago to the day, in May of 2012, and we were happy to get one female character of the six leads.
We’re still here. A year after the RITA awards were acknowledged as problematic and promoting of a biased system, we are once again, as a romance industry, fighting for inclusivity and equal opportunities for all authors.
As an author, I think it’s important to read books that aren’t perfect so we can perform more effectively in our own stories. That said, there are a few things that will make me put a book down.
